CBCP seeks review of laws on mining, logging
Stressing the need to protect the environment, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines urged the government to review its policies on mining and logging.
The CBCP said these policies must be fine-tuned to prevent a repeat of environment-related tragedies that occurred in the last several weeks.
“We take the occasion to make an appeal particularly to the authorities concerned that our prayer and appeal is to make a serious revisit of many of our laws like our logging laws and practices as well as mining laws and development plans,” said CBCP president and Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, in an article posted on the CBCP news site.
“The events that happened in the previous months should lead us to be truly serious about our mining and logging laws and the like,” he added.
Several calamities devastated parts of the country in the last several months, including flash floods brought by tropical storm “Sendong” that killed at least 1,268 people.
In Mindanao, a landslide buried a mining community in Compostela Valley, killing more than 40 people.
Palma said that while natural disasters do happen, human negligence is also partly to blame for recent tragedies such as flooding and landslides.
“With many lamentable calamities, certainly there is the dimension of natural perspective... (but) very simple analysis show that there are human factors, which can be corrected with regards to mining, logging laws, especially with the implementation,” said Palma.
The CBCP had appealed to the government to repeal the Mining Act and to end illegal logging in the country. — LBG, GMA News
The CBCP said these policies must be fine-tuned to prevent a repeat of environment-related tragedies that occurred in the last several weeks.
“We take the occasion to make an appeal particularly to the authorities concerned that our prayer and appeal is to make a serious revisit of many of our laws like our logging laws and practices as well as mining laws and development plans,” said CBCP president and Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, in an article posted on the CBCP news site.
“The events that happened in the previous months should lead us to be truly serious about our mining and logging laws and the like,” he added.
Several calamities devastated parts of the country in the last several months, including flash floods brought by tropical storm “Sendong” that killed at least 1,268 people.
In Mindanao, a landslide buried a mining community in Compostela Valley, killing more than 40 people.
Palma said that while natural disasters do happen, human negligence is also partly to blame for recent tragedies such as flooding and landslides.
“With many lamentable calamities, certainly there is the dimension of natural perspective... (but) very simple analysis show that there are human factors, which can be corrected with regards to mining, logging laws, especially with the implementation,” said Palma.
The CBCP had appealed to the government to repeal the Mining Act and to end illegal logging in the country. — LBG, GMA News
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